to fill up the ditch.  The reports of the engineers, towards evening, announced that a practicable breach was made, and three battalions of Austrian grenadiers, and as many of Prussians, were ordered under arms for the assault.  To make this gallant enterprize more conspicuous, the whole army was formed in columns, and marched to the heights, which commanded a view of the fortress.  The fire from the batteries now became a continued roar, and the guns of Longwy, whose fire had slackened during the day, answered them with an equal thunder; the space between was soon covered with smoke, and when the battalions of grenadiers moved down the hillside, and plunged into the valley, they looked like masses of men disappearing into the depths of ocean.  The anxiety now grew intense.  I hardly breathed; and yet I had a mingled sensation of delight, eagerness, and yet of uncertainty, to which nothing that I had ever felt before was comparable.  I longed to follow those brave men to the assault, and probably would have made some such extravagant blunder, but for seeing Varnhorst’s broad visage turned on me with a look of that quiet humour which, of all things on earth, soonest brings a man to his senses.  “My good friend,” said he, “however fine this affair may be, live in hope of seeing something finer.  Never be shot at Longwy, when you may have a chance of scaling the walls of Paris.  I have made a vow never to be hanged in the beginning of a revolution, nor to be shot in the beginning of a war.  But come, the duke is beckoning to us.  Let us follow him.”

We saw the general and his staff galloping from the ground where he had remained from the beginning of the assault, to a height still more exposed, and where the guns from the fortress were tearing up the soil.  From this spot a large body of troops were seen rushing from the gate of the fortress, and plunging into the valley.  The result of this powerful sortie was soon heard, for every thing was invisible under the thick cloud, which grew thicker every moment, in the volleys of musketry, and the shouts of the troops on both sides.  Varnhorst now received an order from the chief of the staff, which produced its effect, in the rush of a squadron of Prussian cavalry on the flank of the enemy’s column.  In a few minutes it was broken, and we saw its wrecks swept along the side of the hill.  An universal shout was sent up from the army, and our next sight was the ascent of the Austrian and Prussian standards, gradually rising through the smoke, and making their way towards the glacis.  They had reached the foot of the breach, when the fire of the town suddenly ceased.  A white flag waved on the rampart, and the drums of the garrison beat the chamade.  Longwy had surrendered!  All now was triumph and congratulation.  We flocked round the duke, and hailed his first conquest as a promise of perpetual success.  He was in high spirits at an achievement which was so important to the national impression of his talents and resources.